Central and local state budget is usually perceived as a gender - neutral instrument
of fiscal policy because it numerically shows total public revenues and expenditures
that result in budget surplus or deficit. However, the budget has a very different
impact on female and male population, which stems from their different socially
shaped gender roles. Therefore, in the budgeting process, the government should
recognise and take into account different roles and responsibilities of men and
women in their society and on the basis of these findings allocate public money and
implement policies and programmes that contribute to greater gender equality. The
basic aim of this dissertation is to address the issue of the current problem of gender
inequality, its causes and effects, and using scientific evidence raise awareness of
the need for implementing gender - sensitive budgeting that does not only have a
different impact on women and men, but also promotes gender equality as one of the
important economic, political and social objectives. By integrating social and
economic development, a gender - sensitive budget promotes the complementarity of
economic growth and social equity, strengthens the public governance and
contributes to the efficiency of economic policies without a negative impact on gender
equality. The theoretical part of the dissertation presents key benefits, participants,
requirements, and phases of the gender budgeting process. Considering that higher
participation of women in the labour market is the main prerequisite of greater gender
equality, in order to decrease gender inequality, it is necessary to finance certain
public functions that help women reconcile their professional and family life, and thus
enable more equal position of women in the labour market. Due to the
decentralisation of certain public functions, empirical research is mainly focused on
the level of gender awareness of local policies and the structure of public spending in
the Croatian cities. The level of satisfaction of needs and absolute and relative levels
of public spending on childcare are considered in this process, because childcare, as
a measure that “liberates” parents from all - day care of children, allows the
participation of both parents in the labour market. At the same time, to make a
comparison of gender sensitivity of Croatian local economic policy in an international
context, this phenomenon was tested using panel data analysis at the EU level.
Panel data analysis on a sample of 28 EU member states demonstrated that
availability of full - day childcare contributes to greater employment of women with
children under the age of six, i. e. decreases the difference in employment rates of
women without children and women with children under the age of six. Empirical
research on the national level using regression analysis on the sample of all 126
cities and the City of Zagreb demonstrated the positive impact of availability and
public spending on childcare on employment of women. These results confirm that,
by financing public functions that make it easier for women to combine family and
professional life, the purpose of gender budgeting exceeds gender equality as a
fundamental objective and becomes a driving force of modernisation of the public
sector, increases employment, productivity and growth of overall economy by
intensifying the involvement of women in the labour market and by taking advantage
of their skills and intellectual capital which directly contribute to the economic
efficiency of the public sector. This also proves the main hypothesis of the
dissertation. These conclusions are the basis for further research and initiatives
towards the implementation of gender budgeting in the Republic of Croatia.